Fabric Pouf

All right y'all, let's just all agree to pretend today is Saturday and that I followed through on writing at least one post on time this week.

So, as promised, here is my post about the fabric pouf that I made a couple weeks ago. I used this pattern from HGTV. It was pretty easy to follow and the whole shebang took less time than a load of laundry (I know this because I started a load of laundry shortly before cutting out the fabric).

I will say that it made me really love my rotary cutter. After I printed out the pattern and taped it together I folded my 2 yds of canvas into eighth and cut out all of the pieces at once. I could not have done that if I was using even the sharpest sewing shears.

Then I sewed the pieces together, except for one section of one side, flipped it inside out, and stuffed it. The pattern called for 1/4" seam allowances, and if I made this again I would change that to 1/2" just because this pouf is going to see a lot of hard use and I don't think 1/4" gives enough strength to the seam. In fact, after just a couple of weeks, there is at least one spot that I need to repair already because of raveling. 

I also ignored the portion of the directions where if said to use 10 to 15 old towels to stuff it, because seriously who has 10 to 15 old towels just laying around. I don't think I've even owned that many towels over the course of my life, much less kept them when they got to gross to use any more. I used two 32 oz packages of fiber fill instead. 

And then I used the ladder stitch to sew the opening shut.

It looked all nice and neat at the side when I was done, but I stitched the bottom really ugly because I wanted to know it wasn't going anywhere on me. 

Then I flipped it over to hid my ugly stitches and wah-lah! Now I have an ottoman. 

I totally love the pattern on this fabric, it manages to be bright and bold and earthy all at once. It looks good with the chairs we currently have and will also work with the couch that Fiance and I are going to make. I used a treated canvas, and for once I'm really glad that I didn't wash the treatment off because I spilled coffee on the pouf, but it just beaded up and I was able to pat it off with a rag, no harm, no foul. I feel like this sucker is going to last us a good long while, and I'm really glad at the end of my work day to have somewhere to put my feet up. And it was way cheaper that buying something ready made would have been. Yay!